Is The World of Darkness the Void? [3.4 spoilers]

Possible. Plausible. First brood known for being infamously difficult to kill; possible alien aether gives resistance against death, but due to integrating large amount of Hydaelyn aether during life cycle (growth and maturation) still capable of permanently dying.

Just guessing.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Interestingly, voidsent incompatibility with lifestream may explain Midgardsormr immortality.

Both originate from different worlds, are alien. So aether foreign to Hydaelyn, cannot be integrated into lifestream. Can still eat Hydaelyn aether, but own aether is too alien, preventing death.

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As a funny side-note, for a good long while during the HW patch cycle I figured this was going to be the angle they took with Ratatoskr. She was "killed", and because of the way her eyes were handled her aether was scattered, but ultimately through Shenanigans™ we'd be able to help her reconstitute herself and she'd help us try to talk a body-surfing Niddy down from the brink. (Which would fail ofc and we'd still have a boss fight on our hands, but hey, effort counts for a lot!) 2.5 and parts of 3.0 really felt like they were leaning in this direction.

But no, apparently the First do flow into Eorzea's lifestream upon their final demise. Which feels a bit odd, and made some of the follow-through from 3.0 a little abrupt-feeling, but there are other ways in which it makes sense (and narratively is probably for the best, as having constantly immortal dragon buddies could get a bit weird, even if in the short term it could be cool).

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Originally Posted by StarDrake

As a funny side-note, for a good long while during the HW patch cycle I figured this was going to be the angle they took with Ratatoskr. She was "killed", and because of the way her eyes were handled her aether was scattered, but ultimately through Shenanigans™ we'd be able to help her reconstitute herself and she'd help us try to talk a body-surfing Niddy down from the brink. (Which would fail ofc and we'd still have a boss fight on our hands, but hey, effort counts for a lot!) 2.5 and parts of 3.0 really felt like they were leaning in this direction.

But no, apparently the First do flow into Eorzea's lifestream upon their final demise. Which feels a bit odd, and made some of the follow-through from 3.0 a little abrupt-feeling, but there are other ways in which it makes sense (and narratively is probably for the best, as having constantly immortal dragon buddies could get a bit weird, even if in the short term it could be cool).

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I've thought of a rather Xenogears/saga/blade-like scenario where 90% of Ishgard transforms into a reconstituted Ratatoskr. I don't think the development team is willing to do something like that though.

I think only Midgardsrmr is immortal and only due to a pact he made with Hydaelyn where he can sort of circumvent the laws of the Lifestream because reasons. His first brood is harder to kill but every subsequent generation after the first dilutes their vitality further and further. According to the lorebook, dragons take on many forms depending on their affinity for land, air, or mixed; as well as their preferred elemental. They have branching evolutions, kinda like original Digimon handheld toys did. They all start as Dragonets and then if they prefer flying, they become Wyverns or Amphiptere, and if they prefer land, they lose their wings and become Gorynych or those turtle dragon things. The first brood have immense either and cannot die as long as they have at least one eye. Even if their eyes are separated, they can reconstitute their form by imposing their will on another and hijacking their aether (like Estinien). Once the eyes are destroyed, they evaporate back to the lifestream and are likely perma dead. We never see the original Bahamut, but it's likely he was bodied by Proto-Ultima or something.

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Originally Posted by Zohar_Lahar

I've thought of a rather Xenogears/saga/blade-like scenario where 90% of Ishgard transforms into a reconstituted Ratatoskr. I don't think the development team is willing to do something like that though.

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I thought the direction they were going was that they were going to use all of Ishgard as a sacrifice and summon Alexander (holy primal, matches the whole church/judgement thang) and it would be Nidhogg vs Alexander like FF9's Bahamut vs Alexander. Basically the plan was put into motion 1000 years ago, kinda like Full Metal Alchemist with Amestris having a giant alchemical circle underneath it and the entire country being sacrificed to make a Philosopher Stone for the villain.

Something has been bothering me for a long time. Supposedly the Allagan built the Crystal Tower, however, it looks NOTHING like anything else the Allagan built. Their tech has a very distinct design and aesthetic, one which the CT does not share in any way. With all of the recent developments, I am almost certain that the Allagan did not build CT, they simply re-purposed it.

Furthermore, knowing there is a CT on the First, and thinking about the WoD raid, I began to suspect that there is in fact a CT on every shard, acting as gateways. Thats why we use it to go to the first, and Xande used it to open a portal to the 13th.

But then it hit me. What if the CT is bigger and more important than we are even starting to suspect? What if there is only ONE Crystal Tower, but it exists in all worlds simultaneously. Think about a venn diagram, with 14 circles. Each circle is a shard, and the middle where they overlap is the CT. that would explain how it can act as a portal between shards. Also, if the source and the 13th are opposing circles on the venn diagram, that could be what is meant by the 13th being "furthest away" from the source in a sense, while still being in contact.

It was reiterated at the JP Fan Fest that the Allagans did indeed build the CT. The devs even went so far as to say that the Crystal Tower was not around when the Shards were split and they hid parts of the slides about how long the CT on the 1st Shad hard been in the dev panel after the live letter.

While they are making a big deal about when and who built the CT on the 1st Shard, they have been very adamant about the origins and construction of the CT on the Source.

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Originally Posted by ObsidianFire

It was reiterated at the JP Fan Fest that the Allagans did indeed build the CT. The devs even went so far as to say that the Crystal Tower was not around when the Shards were split and they hid parts of the slides about how long the CT on the 1st Shad hard been in the dev panel after the live letter.

While they are making a big deal about when and who built the CT on the 1st Shard, they have been very adamant about the origins and construction of the CT on the Source.

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Hmmm, so they did. Went back to rewatch the keynote to be sure, and you are right.

Well, thats a shame, I liked the idea taking shape in my mind a lot better than "because Allag" again. The CT doesnt even look remotely Allagan.

Since the tower was originally built to gather solar power, it might have been constructed by proto-Allagans in the Third Umbral Era to cope with the fire calamity.

That slide from the dev panel said that the 1st's CT just 'appeared' one day some decades ago and then the town was built around it a few years later. The JP text appears to utilise the word warp when describing it.